Kids Recall Stories Better with Digital Story Book

Digital story books that animate upon a child's vocalization offer beneficial learning opportunities, especially for children with less developed attention regulation, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The results of three experiments done by researchers were published in the journal Developmental Psychology. It proved that digital story book provided a better learning experience for kids when adults read them out compared to traditional hardboard book. The results were much better when using an animated digital book resulting in better recall of what was read. Children's recall was higher for the digital book that animated with the child’s vocalization (59.42 percent compared to 45.13 percent).

In every experiment, children experienced better recall for stories when they were able to exert active control on the animations in the storybook. According to Erik Thiessen, Associate Professor of Psychology, positive reinforcement enhances the learning experience as do the animated visuals, which integrate nonverbal information and language into the mix.